South Korea will end its mandate that travelers from China undergo COVID-19 testing upon their arrival.
Kim Sun-ho, a senior official at the Interior Ministry, said Wednesday during a COVID-19 response meeting that the post-arrival test requirement will be lifted March 1, but pre-arrival testing will be needed until March 10.
Seoul imposed a requirement in January for Chinese visitors to undergo a rapid COVID-19 test within the first day of entering South Korea, and for arrivals to remain in separate facilities until their test results are confirmed.
The new requirements were imposed just weeks after China abruptly reversed its strict “zero-Covid” strategy on December 7. The strategy, first imposed in 2020, included swift and severe lockdowns, quarantines and mass testing in several cities with a significant COVID-19 outbreak. It triggered unusual and intense public protests across many Chinese cities and an economic downturn due to factory shutdowns.
But the end of “zero-Covid” led to an apparent resurgence of the virus, especially in rural China.
Kim Sun-ho said South Korea was lifting post-arrival testing as the rate of COVID-19 positive visitors from China fell from 18.4% in the first week of January to 0.6% in the third week of February.
China suspended short-term visas for South Koreans in an apparent retaliation for the testing requirements, which the Chinese Embassy in Seoul denounced as “discriminatory.”
Some information for this report came from Reuters.
